Flight Of The Phoenix Trojan
By Ralph McCormick
Early in 2004, the Trojan Phlyers aerobatic team
consisting of three Trojan T-28’s took a major hit. A newly signed off
twin engine pilot was taking his family on a first flight out of Hicks
Field in Fort Worth, TX. That pilot managed to physically destroy two
of the three T-28’s used by the Trojan Phlyers flight team. The planes
were parked on the ramp. Normally there would have been all three
parked out there, but as luck would have it, this day there was only two
parked in the open.
The tail was severed from one plane and heavy
damage was acquired by the other one. Insurance, did the pilot who
rented the plane have any? Well, it seems he was from a foreign county
and is now there. The owner of the rental plane seems to have moved and
it is possible that he had no insurance. Therefore, the insurance
company of the Trojan Phlyers is taking care of the damaged planes.
As of June 2004, one of the two damages planes is
back on the air show circuit. The other plane will be back before the
end of the year. All three planes will have a new paint scheme, one
Navy, one Air Force, and one Marine’s. As did the Phoenix rise from the
ashes, so will the T-28’s of the Trojan Phlyers.
Now let’s digress. The Trojan Phlyers Aerobatic
Team has been around since the mid ninety’s. Neil Anderson and John
Sledge were instrumental in organizing the team, which started as a two
ship formation performing team. After 2000, a third T-28 was added to
the group. “Until the third plane gets repaired, it is going to be a
two plane act,” states Frank Adams.
The flight leader is Frank Adams and the wing man
is John Sledge, both having 25 to 28,000 flight hours in all types of
planes. The history of these two pilots goes back to 1960, when both
entered Navy Flight School. Both flew fighters in the Marine Corps,
including the F-8 Crusader and the F-4 Phantom. In addition Frank flew
the A-4 Skyhawk and John flew the FJ Fury. Frank and John are Vietnam
Veterans, both experiencing heavy fighting over Chu Lai, South Vietnam,
North Vietnam, and Laos. Frank was shot down on his twenty-sixth
mission, but was rescued and went on to fly eighty more missions.
Frank and John retired from military duty and began
a long career flying for major airlines. Both pilots flew jets in the
military, so the Trojan T-28 is a relative new experience for them.
Frank did fly it during Navy flight training, making his first carrier
landing in one.
Other pilots involved with the Trojan Phlyers are
Chris Wood and Chip Lamb who handles the scheduling of the performing
team. Ron Anderson is the mechanic. The Corporation consists of a
dozen or so individuals who participate by working on and flying the
T-28’s. Only John and Frank are qualified to fly formation at air
shows, a feat that is not seen often. The precision and challenge of
flying formation is a difficult task, one learned in the military. “A
fifteen minute performance of formation aerobatics is very strenuous on
the wing man. It will wear him out in a short period. John does a
superb job in that position, said Frank Adams.
For the past several years, the Trojan Phlyers have
preformed at twelve or more air shows per year. This year will be
somewhat lower, since the accident damaged the planes at the beginning
of the air show season. “That accident most likely cost us about three
or four shows,” said Adams. We fly, mostly, in the southeast,
southwest, and center part of the country performing at air shows. We
don’t limit our self to any particular area, but operate out of Texas as
our home base,” Frank stated.
For more information call 817 366-2868 or go to
www.fly-low.com and our links page for Trojan Phlyers. “
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